Stonyfield Farm talks to Farmington gardeners on organic practices

Thursday

Dec 20, 2012 at 3:15 AMDec 27, 2012 at 4:48 PM

By John Nolanjnolan@fosters.com

FARMINGTON — Stonyfield Farm's Sustainability Innovation Project Coordinator Jenna Bourne recently gave a public talk, at the invitation of Farmington Gardeners' Roundtable, on the history of her company and the principles of sustainability that guide it.

Stonyfield, based in Londonderry, is the world's largest producer of organic yoghurt, which means that the cows' milk, and the fruit contained in flavored varieties of yoghurt, must be free of growth hormones, pesticides and all the other chemicals prevalent in much modern day food production. To maintain its “organic” status, Stonyfield is not only audited by an independent agency, but all its upstream suppliers are similarly scrutinized, monitored and tested.

After passing out samples of yoghurt to try, Bourne started out her presentation with a video featuring one of their many milk suppliers, the Teague family, North Carolina farmers who have a dairy herd.

Farmer Teague said that raising his cows the old way, he “used to spray everything” but this did not keep him from going into debt, and, on top of that, from getting sick.

“That was a wake-up call,” he said. “We decided to go organic, or quit. It has had a big impact on our health and out lives. Our vet bills are 10 percent of what they used to be. Our cows are healthy, we feel better, and we could never got back to the old way.”

Although going organic was the right thing to do, said Teague, it was originally an economic decision. The conventional price for a c-weight (cwt) of milk in 2012, said Bourne is $18.44, while Stonyfield pays farmers a guaranteed $26.56 for a cwt of organic milk. A cwt is about 100 pounds.

The reason organic products cost more, explained Bourne, is because there are no chemical shortcuts in their production.

Organic milk comes from small farms, where the cows walk out to their pasture, rather than living all their lives in a factory-type environment, and thus farms are limited by the amount of available grazing land. The cows eat feed that is 100 percent organic and grown in healthy, rich soil that contains no toxic pesticides. The cows, which must graze outdoors at least four months of the year and be treated humanely, cannot be given rBGH. This is a genetically engineered artificial hormone injected into dairy cows to increase milk production.

Stonyfield Farm is active in the fight to have food labelled to reveal the presence of such things as artificial hormones.

“Ninety two percent of Americans want genetically engineered foods labelled. They have a right to know,” Bourne said, noting that such labelling is required by law in many parts of the world, including almost all of Europe, but not in the United States or Canada, where there is a strong lobby opposed to it.

The recent Proposition 37 in California, seeking the labelling of genetically modified foods, was defeated 53 percent to 47 percent, with the pro-labellers being outspent by the anti-labellers by a ratio of 7-1. The label opposers included well-known companies like Monsanto and Hershey, according to campaign finance tracker MapLight.org, as reported on the Huffington Post website. Over $44 million was reportedly spent to defeat Prop. 37 at the ballot box.

“The fight goes on,” Bourne told her Farmington audience. “Customers should vote with their pocket books.” She encouraged everyone to visit the website www.justlabelit.org, the online presence of the pro-label campaign, which is chaired by Gary Hirshberg, who also chairs the board of the Stonyfield Farm company.

Bourne explained that Stonyfield originated from an organic farming school in Wilton in 1983, which started making yoghurt from the milk of seven cows. This sold so well, that the school switched to just being a yoghurt company, and some years later, outgrowing its rural location, built its Londonderry facility. Growth has been steady, even through the recession. In 1989, said Bourne, the company had 42 employees and sold 8,050 cases of yoghurt, valued at $2.5 million. In 2012, the projected figures, with 410 employees, are 800,000 cases valued at $340 million.

Hirshberg, a New Hampshire native, joined the board of the small organic farming school from which Stonyfield was spawned. Previously, he had served as executive director of the New Alchemy Institute, a research and education center dedicated to organic farming, aquaculture and renewable energy.

In 2001, the French company Groupe Danone bought around 40 percent of Stonyfield Farm stock and in 2003 took up 85 percent of Stonyfield Farm, Inc. shares. The remaining 15 percent of shares are owned by Hirshberg and other employees, according to the company's website.

Hirshberg had a long-term arrangement to continue as chairman and president, but on Jan. 12 of the current year, he stepped down from his position as CEO, naming former Ben & Jerry's CEO Walt Freese as his successor. Hirshberg remains chairman of the board of directors at Stonyfield.

The company website notes that there have been and will be no changes to Stonyfield Farm employees, facility and operations resulting from this partnership with Danone. Stonyfield's sales, brand and marketing strategies remain independent from Danone and have been unaltered by the partnership, while milk for their yogurt continues to be supplied by Northeast and Midwest dairy farmers, with Stonyfield continuing its focus on growing the number of organic family farms across the U.S.

Currently, Stonyfield is supplied with its needs, by 200,000 acres of organic farmland.

Bourne noted that Stonyfield's “Profits for the Planet” program, in which 10 percent of prior year's profits are donated to environmental causes, continues as a key example of Stonyfield's environmental mission.

She also revealed that it was Stonyfield that pioneered the foil, peel-off lid, and that each of their 700 million lids carries an environmental message.

One such message, she added, was found to be unacceptable by Congress (a Stonyfield customer.) It read, “In politics, the cream does not always rise to the top.”

The Londonderry facility is a “green” building that has enhanced day lighting through the roof, non-toxic paint, and motion sensor electric lighting. On the roof, is a large array of solar panels, although these only supply a small fraction of the power used in the production process.

By working on cost avoidance, $24 million has been saved over the years and this has helped the company to hold onto all its employees during the recession.

Whenever possible, too, Stonyfield chooses to move its products by rail rather than by truck.

“Rail is 11 times better for the environment,” said Bourne.

Stonyfield never seems to rest on its laurels. In 2010, it moved in a big way, to plant-based plastic for package. Made from sugar cane, this reduces carbon emissions by 65 percent, according to Bourne.

Since being hired five years ago, she has encouraged recycling at the factory and this has now risen from 27 percent to over 90 percent.

“I have almost put myself out of a job,” she joked.

The savings from this reduce-reuse-recycle initiative are around $150,000 annually.

To further help the planet, Stonyfield has an commuting incentive policy in place for employees. Those who walk or bike to work are paid an additional $3 a day, while for carpoolers, the driver gets an extra $2 and the passenger a $1 each day.

“I am really proud to work there,” said Bourne, who, at the conclusion of her talk and visual presentation, rewarded the audience with even more cartons of Stonyfield Organic Yoghurt.